IIMs likely to give it’s students direct entry to PhD

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Very soon highly esteemed Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will take its students directly into their PhD programmes.

According to sources, this idea which was proposed by IIM Bangalore is likely to get a nod by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

“A meeting regarding this was held last week by the MHRD and felt that exceptional students who have completed four years of graduation with an outstanding CGPA of 8 should be directly admitted to PhD by the IIMs. The duration for the course would be four years,” sources said.

However, the decision will be taken regarding this after consulting with UGC and AICTE.

The proposal made by some of the IIMs was that B schools should be allowed to admit students directly to doctoral programmes once they graduate, the way the Indian Institutes of Technology, IITs are allowed to do.

G Raghuram, Director, IIM-Bangalore said to TNIE, “We already admit such candidates to our fellow programmes, which are equivalent to PhD,” he said. However, the IIMB now is not able to grant them a PhD degree.

Initially, the 20 IIMs were supposed to adhere to the University Grants Commission, UGC’s norms on the award of PhD degrees. As per UGC’s rules and regulations, only candidates with a Master’s degree are eligible to pursue a PhD.

Sources in the HRD say that it is considering the approval after looking at the PhD programmes offered by some IITs, which are empowered to award degrees and are also institutes of national importance.

It must be noted that Under the IIM Act, 2017, IIMs too have been allowed to award degrees.

However, the MHRD has also noted that IIT-Delhi, for example, has prescribed a minimum time period of three years for PhD for individuals possessing a degree other than a Masters or equivalent. “For students with a four-year graduation, the minimum duration would be three years. The duration for completing PhD for those having a Masters degree is two years so similar rules have to be followed by IIMs,” an official said.